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The Role of Environmental Attitudes in Explaining Public Perceptions of Climate Change and Renewable Energy Technologies in Lithuania

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The Role of Environmental Attitudes in Explaining Public Perceptions of Climate Change and Renewable Energy Technologies in Lithuania sustainability Article The Role of Environmental Attitudes in Explaining Public Perceptions of Climate Change and Renewable Energy Technologies in Lithuania Aiste˙ Balžekiene˙ * and Agne˙ Budžyte˙ Civil Society and Sustainability Research Group, Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology, 44249 Kaunas, Lithuania; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: The Baltic states in general and Lithuania in particular represent a controversial combi- nation of rapidly increasing climate change impacts and moderate or low concern with the climate crisis. A value shift is essential for the societal support and acceptance of renewable energy solutions. This study investigates the role of environmental attitudes in shaping the acceptance and risk per- ceptions of renewable energy technologies. The article analyses how environmental attitudes are shaping public attitudes towards climate change and perceptions of renewable energy technologies in Lithuania using New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) and environmental identity questions. The study analyses data from a representative public opinion survey with 1029 respondents conducted in Lithuania. The results reveal that environmental identity is a more significant factor in shaping risk perceptions of renewable technologies than is the NEP scale. The balance of nature dimension from the NEP is more closely related to perceptions of renewables than are humans’ right to rule Citation: Balžekiene,˙ A.; Budžyte,˙ A. The Role of Environmental Attitudes claims. The results show that environmental attitudes have low explanatory power in explaining in Explaining Public Perceptions of perceptions of energy technologies in Lithuania. Climate Change and Renewable Energy Technologies in Lithuania. Keywords: environmental attitudes; climate change perceptions; renewable energy; risk perception; Sustainability 2021, 13, 4376. HEP-NEP scale https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084376 Academic Editors: Madeleine Granvik and Walter 1. Introduction Leal Filho Sustainability is a policy agenda that urges profound changes in social values in order to stimulate behavioural changes. A shift to green energy sources requires not only public Received: 9 March 2021 acceptance in terms of policy support, but also public understanding of the causal relations Accepted: 12 April 2021 of renewables to future environmental conditions and sustainability. Heberlein [1] has Published: 14 April 2021 identified a difference between technological and cognitive fixes in relation to solving environmental problems. A technological fix occurs when technology influences the Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral environment and environmental changes are achieved, while a cognitive fix happens when with regard to jurisdictional claims in information influences human behaviour and accordingly attitudes need to be changed to published maps and institutional affil- influence behaviour [1] (p. 164). iations. The role of human values in the quest of sustainability has been identified by many authors, for instance Thøgersen and Ölander [2], Neckel [3] and Lockie [4]. Reflexivity regarding the consequences of one’s own impacts and ecological footprint can meaning- fully transfer to support for environmentally friendly solutions, like renewable energy Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. production solutions. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The climate crisis and continued development of society require a broader approach This article is an open access article in the public policy sectors than ever before. As global challenges threaten the current distributed under the terms and well-being of civilisation, the need to ensure and provide energy efficiency has reached conditions of the Creative Commons a new high. Numerous development initiatives regarding technology and innovation Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// have since attempted to make the energy sector more environmentally friendly. However, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). political will is a necessity to implement such initiatives. The European Union (EU) has Sustainability 2021, 13, 4376. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084376 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2021, 13, 4376 2 of 15 been acknowledged as one of the leaders of the energy transition due to its development of useful tools [5] and its setting of clear priorities towards a more sustainable future. In addition, over the last 50 years the EU has addressed various energy efficiency measures in Member States [6] by setting energy efficiency and energy conservation as the top priorities in the EU energy policies [7]. Lithuania represents a unique context, exhibiting increasing concerns about the climate crisis yet low public concern regarding this issue. According to Greenmatch [8] in an evaluation of the climate change impacts in European countries, Lithuania is the most affected country. Data show that Lithuania’s surface and sea temperature increased the most of all European countries. However, according to European Social Survey (ESS) data [9], Lithuanians are much more concerned about the affordability of energy than climate change issues. Being the most affected yet least concerned country in Europe creates a need to evaluate how environmental attitudes can help explain public perceptions of climate change and renewable energy technologies. Indeed, possible energy transition barriers in the social world caused by a lack of awareness or a deprivation of information regarding global challenges may hamper further sustainable development processes. Therefore, there is a need to look closer at the relationship between environmental attitudes and support for renewable energy technologies in Lithuania, in order to ascertain whether the implementation of a green energy policy is becoming embedded as a value- based policy measure. The aim of this article is to analyse how environmental attitudes are shaping public attitudes towards climate change and perceptions of renewable energy technologies in Lithuania. To measure environmental attitudes, the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale and environmental identity questions are used. The NEP scale was developed by Dunlap and colleagues [10] as a measure of pro-environmental worldviews, identifying a shift from anthropocentric understandings of human-nature relations to an environmentally conscious worldview. The use of NEP scale in Lithuanian survey allows to reveal what are the dominant environmental attitudes and how much ecocentric worldviews are common. We assume that environmental attitudes are significant predictors of risk perceptions and attitudes towards energy technologies. The development of renewables in Lithuania and the issue of public acceptance is closely linked to green energy policy developments in the EU. Aligning with international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, multiple action plans, frameworks and strategies have been set into the EU agenda, which are supposed to help meet the organisation’s energy efficiency targets set until the year 2030 and the achievement of carbon neutrality by the 2050s [7]. In September 2020 the EU Commission even proposed to raise the 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction target to 55% (compared with the 1990s) by embracing the need to consider all sectors for possible actions, which would lead to an increased energy efficiency [11]. However, such development in the energy sector requires significant technological improvement, mostly tied with energy transition pathways and the expansion of renewable energy technologies. One evaluation of the technical aspects of renewable energy technologies has identified that such a transition could help ensure broader energy access and improve air quality, while also increasing energy security and avoiding the negative consequences of climate change [12]. Nevertheless, developments and investments in wind, solar, hydro and other low-carbon energy sources continue to face multiple barriers because the whole transition process involves more than just a straightforward set of targets and policies [13]. As Biresselioglu et al. note [13], highly significant aspects of the energy transition are being played by various social factors, such as scepticism, economic gains and environmental concerns. Thus, the decision-making process cannot avoid the engagement of the general public. As the ways in which energy is being produced are just a part of the whole horizon, its usage plays a noteworthy role in the process as well. The European Green Deal [14] recognises that Europe must transform both economy and society towards a more sustainable path. To this end, the EU has acknowledged the need for active public participation and support for policies by finding Sustainability 2021, 13, 4376 3 of 15 some motivators to increase public acceptance of such transition (e.g., financing schemes, household renovations and reduced energy bills). The European Environment Agency (EEA) [15] has noted that energy usage among multiple sectors in the 28 EU Member States slightly dropped (5.7%) in 2017 compared with 2005. However, the final energy consumption leaders by sector did not change: as was true in 2005, the transport sector accounted for the largest part of final energy consumption (31%), with households in second place (27%) and industry in third (25%). Lithuania faces similar trends in its national energy consumption statistics [16]. The trends among the predominant final consumers of energy here were similar to the
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